This Smart Monitor Will Help Brown Thumbs Raise Victory Gardens

It's tough finding time to keep your houseplants from withering away, much less the effort to maintain an entire outdoor urban garden. But with this comprehensive monitoring system, gardeners of any age and skill level can grow the best crops in the neighbourhood.

The Edyn system is comprised of two parts: the Edyn Garden Sensor and the Edyn Water Valve. The garden sensor is a solar-powered brain in a box. Just stick it in the dirt and the onboard soil sensors will measure temperature, humidity, light intensity and soil electrical conductivity (which is affected by how much water is present). It then pushes this data to the cloud via an integrated Wi-Fi connection where the company's proprietary algorithm analyses the sensor data and recommends actions for the user to take through the associated iOS app. What's more, the system can even recommend what sorts of plants to use based on your specific city's weather patterns.

The Water Valve, which is also solar powered and includes a lithium ion battery for overcast days, connects between the outdoor standpipe and your drip irrigation system. It acts as an automated valve, taking direction from the Sensor data and applying sufficient water to growing plants.

The system is currently up for funding at Kickstarter and is seeking to raise $US100,000 in 34 days. The sensor alone will be available for $US99 pre-order, and the pair will run $US160.

This system looks pretty sweet. A lot of the garden monitoring and automation systems on the market today either will only perform a single function (monitoring or watering) or require an unfun amount of setup/wiring/coding. With this, you just plug it into the ground and your hose, and boom you're done. Now if only someone could devise an automated weeding system.